Guard structure



Dec. 31, 1957 H. K. DE WlTT ETAL GUARD STRUCTURE Filed Sept. 15, 1955 JNV ZAZORLSQ zz W United States Patent GUARD STRUCTURE Harry K. De Witt, Wilmette, Ill., and Axel E. F. Johnson,

Cincinnati, Ohio, assignors to American Hospital Supply Corporation, Evanston, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application September 15,1955, Serial No..534,575

Claims. (Cl. 5-331) This invention relates to guard structures, and more specifically, to a collapsible structure equipped with telescoping bars which is particularly suitable as a safety device for hospital beds and the like.

One of the main objects of the present invention is. to provide a portable and collapsible guard structure for beds. Another object is to provide a removable safety side structure for beds, which may be extended along the entire length of a bed to protect persons, reclining thereon, and may be collapsed into a compact, portable structure when not in use. A further object is to provide a safety structure. for beds which has a plurality of telescoping bars pivotally secured to at least one connecting member so that the bars may be moved to a horizontally extended position andvto a vertically collapsed position. Other objects will appear from the specification and; the drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a bed frame equipped with a structure embodying the present invention;v Fig. 2 is a broken side view showing the guard structure in. a .col-

lapsed or retracted position; Fig. 3 illustrates atelescoping bar in a broken top plan view; Fig. 4 isa-broken sectional view of a telescoping, bar showing; the; details. of construction and taken along lines 4-4 of Fig. 1;. Fig.5 is a horizontal sectional view taken. along lines 5-5 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 6 is a side elevation of the safety structure of the present invention showing the detachable: or removable nature of that structure.

Referring to the drawings, Fig. 1. shows a bed frame A having side rails 11,, leg posts 12 and casters13. If a bed is of the type commonly found in hospitals and clinics, then it may also be equipped with an. adjustable mattress support 14 so that different portions of a. mattress (not shown) may be elevated or inclined tosuit the particular condition or preference of a patient. The above-mentioned structures are well" known and a more detailed description. herein is therefore believed unnecessary.

The upright frame members 12 at the head of the-bed are furnished with brackets 15. As shown in" Fig. 5,

these brackets are preferably composed of twoseparate pieces secured to the uprights 12 by means of boltslfi, or by any other suitable means. Each of the brackets provides a laterally positioned vertical post or shaft 17 which is stepped so that the upper portion 18 of the post is of smaller diameter than the lower portion 19 of that post. Most desirably, the lower portion of the post or shaft is welded or otherwise attached to each bracket so that there is clearance between the upper portion 18 and the upright 12 upon which the bracket is mounted.

Similarly, the frame uprights 12 at the foot of the bed are equipped with brackets 20. These brackets are likewise equipped with vertical posts 21 which are stepped to provide lower portion 22 and narrower upper portion 23.

Each of the bracket posts 17, 21 are adapted to serve as mountings for the remainder of the guard structure.

This structure essentially comprises the spaced parallel bars. B and the. connecting members C and D. While it is to be understood that each of the connecting members might be fabricated from a. single piece of material, we have found itdesirable tov form each of these members from a number of parts which are then welded or otherwise secured together. Connecting member C is accordingly composed of an elongated tubular sleeve 24 and a collar 25. .The lower vertical portion of the sleeve. 26 acts as asocket to receive the upper portion of the post 17. .Not only is the sleeve removable from the post 17, as shown in'Fig;' 6, but it is also rotatable upon the fixed bracket post.

.Sleeve 24 also has an upper portion 27 which. slopes upwardly and away. from. the vertical axis of lower'portion 26 and shaft 17;. The collar fits about the upper portion of the sleeve and, as. shown in Fig. 3, has a generally U-shaped cross-section. The outwardly extending parallel legs. of the U"-shaped collar are provided with apertures in register with openings through the ends of each of the bars B. The rivets or bolts 28 pass through these openings and apertures and secure the bars to the collar so that they may pivot in a generally vertical plane about their respective points. of attachment.

The opposite ends of bars B are detachably connected to post 21 by means .of connecting. member D. This connecting member consists of an upstanding sleeve 29 which .is adapted to receive the upper portion 23 of post 21 and which is pivotally secured to each of the bars B by bands 30 and. rivets 31'. These bands may be welded or otherwise sealed. on the sleeve 29 by techniques well known in the art.

Each of the elongated bars B is composed of a plurality of telescoping tubular segments, as shown best in Figs. 1 and 4". The latter figure also illustrates. stopping means preventing the disengagement of a pair of telescoped sections or segments designated as 32 and 33. The larger section, 32, has an inwardly turned lip 34, which defines an opening slightly larger than the outer diameter of the smaller tubular segment 33. Between the outer. surface of the smaller segment and theinner surface of the larger segment is a stop collar 35 which may be secure'dto the outer surface of the smaller tube inv any suitable manner, such as by welding. This stop collar is small enough to slide easily within the outer tube, but is too large to escape through, the opening defined by lips 34. Hence, as represented. in Fig. 4 the collar 35 and the lips or stops 34 abut each other when. the respective tubularsegmentsare drawn to their mostextended position.

While Fig. 6' illustrates the removal of the horizontally extended safety bars from the brackets to which they are secured by connecting members C'and D, it will be apparent that the removal operation may be also performed after'one of the members has" first been disengagedfrom its bracketpost or-pi'nand the telescoping bars have been retracted or collapsed, as shown in Fig. 2. It will be appreciated that when the bars are so collapsed and the structure is folded downwardly, the bulk of the entire guard structure is greatly reduced. In order to maintain the structure in a compact collapsed condition, and to facilitate detachment of the retracted structure from the bracket post, we attach the segments at the opposite end of the uppermost bar by a hook 36 and a knob 37. By this simple expedient, all the bars are thus latched in retracted position at the same time.

When the condition of a patient is such that the extended safety bars are unnecessary or undesirable, the structure may be retracted to the position shown in Fig. 2 so that the collapsed bars are adjacent to each other and extend downwardly in a generally vertical direction. Since connecting member C is rotatably mounted upon bracket post 18, the collapsed structure may be turned upon that post so that collar 25 slopes upwardly and away from the end of the bed frame, thereby eliminating any obstruction of the patients movement or vision at the sides of the bed. Furthermore, if the guard structure will not be required for a long period of time, then it may be lifted in collapsed condition from the bracket post and stored until a future time when it is needed. The problems of storage are greatly simplified because of the relatively small size and the compactness of the folded or collapsed structure.

While our invention has been described and shown in considerable detail for purposes of illustration, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many of these details may be varied without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. A collapsible guard structure adapted to be detachably mounted upon bed frames and the like, and comprising at least one bracket adapted to be mounted upon a side of a bed frame adjacent one end thereof, a connecting member removably and pivotally mounted upon said bracket for rotational movement about a vertical axis of said bracket and having an angled portion inclined with reference to said vertical axis of rotation, and a plurality of substantially parallel bars, each composed of elongated telescoping segments, said bars each having one end pivotally mounted upon the angled portions of said connecting members for pivotal movement from an extended position perpendicular to the vertical axis of said bracket to a collapsed position parallel to said axis.

2. The structure of claim 1 in which a second bracket is mounted adjacent to the opposite end of said bed frame and a second connecting member is removably mounted thereon, the ends of said bars opposite said first-mentioned connecting member being pivotally mounted upon said second connecting member for movement along a plane passing through a vertical axis thereof.

3. The structure of claim 2 in which latching means are provided upon opposite end segments of one of said bars for latching said bars in retracted position.

4. A guard structure for hospital beds and the like, comprising a pair of brackets each adapted to be mounted upon the corners of a bed frame adjacent opposite ends of said frame and along the same side thereof, each of said brackets being provided with a vertically extending post, a pair of connecting members each being equipped with a socket at the lower portion thereof for detachably receiving one of said bracket posts, one of said connecting members having an upper portioninclined upwardly and away from the vertical axis of the bracket post received by said member, and a plurality of elongated and substantially parallel bars extending between said connecting members, said bars each having one end movably mounted upon one of said members and having its opposite end pivotally mounted upon the inclined upper portion of the other of said members for pivotal movement between raised and lowered positions along a vertically extending plane, said bars also being composed of a plurality of telescoping segments and being adjustable between an cxtended and a retracted position.

5. The structure of claim 4 in which the connecting member having said upper inclined portion is rotatably mounted upon the bracket post received thereby for rotational movement upon said post into a selected position wherein said upper portion angles upwardly and away from the opposite end of said frame when said bars are in a retracted position.

6. The structure of claim 4 in which the latching means are provided upon opposite end segments of one of said bars for latching said bars in a retracted position.

7. A guard structure comprising a vertically extending post, a connecting member rotatably mounted on said post and comprising a sleeve and a collar, said sleeve having a lower vertical portion adapted to receive said post and an upper portion inclined upwardly and away from the axis of said lower portion, said collar being mounted upon and extending substantially about the upper inclined portion of said sleeve, and a plurality of elongated and generally parallel bars each composed of telescoping tubular segments and each having an end thereof pivotally mounted upon said collar for pivotal movement in a vertical plane between raised and lowered positions, and means connecting the opposite ends of said bars to each other, whereby said telescoping parallel bars may be retracted and pivoted downwardly to a substantially vertical lowered position and may be extended and pivoted upwardly to a substantially horizontal raised position.

8. The structure of claim 7 in which said collar has a generally U-shaped cross-section providing a pair of outwardly extending arms, said bars having end portions pivotally mounted between the arms of said collar.

9. The structure of claim 7 in which latching means are provided on opposite end segments of one of said tubular bars for latching said bars in retracted position.

10. A guard structure for hospital beds and the like comprising, a bracket adapted to be mounted upon one side of a bed frame, a connecting member being detachably mounted upon said bracket adjacent one end of said frame and being rotatably mounted for rotation about a vertical axis of said bracket, said connecting member having an angled portion extending upwardly and away from said vertical axis of rotation and being rotatable about said axis for moving said angled portion between selected positions wherein the same angles towards and away from the opposite end of said frame, and a plurality of substantially parallel and retractable bars each having one end thereof pivotally mounted upon the angled portion of said connecting member for movement along a vertical plane between a raised horizontal position and a lowered vertical position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 289,433 McKay Dec. 4, 1883 526,214 Black Sept. 18, 1894 1,697,027 Stevenson Jan. 1, 1929 2,231,381 Boehmcke Feb. 11, 1941 

